This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The Kremlin says it expects conversations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to remain classified as a scandal involving a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy engulfs Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on September 27 that the publication of notes on what was said in the Trump-Zelenskiy call was “unusual” and that the normal diplomatic practice of confidentiality would remain in place.
“As a rule, such talks between heads of state are classified or highly classified. This is standard practice worldwide, and usually, of course, the talks are not published,” Peskov said when asked about the White House’s release of a reconstruction of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy.
“Of course, we would like to hope that, in our bilateral relations, which have enough quite serious problems already, it won’t come to these situations,” he added.
Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden and his son during the call that is at the heart of a House impeachment inquiry.
Democrats are arguing that Trump pressured Zelenskiy during the call to investigate the former vice president in order to help his own reelection bid. Biden is a top Democratic contender to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Following the release of a summary of the call, Trump, who has denied he pressured Zelenskiy, has called the Democrats’’ investigation into the matter “nonsense” and a “manufactured crisis.”
Peskov called the scandal around the phone call “strictly a U.S. domestic affair,” adding that Moscow has “no plans to become involved.”
